Tradition
by PB7
Summary: (SKILENE) It's Christmastime and there's lots of fun happening in Central Park. But what happens if Skipper and Marlene are caught in a ... "traditional" situation? (One-shot)


Well, I didn't get the chance to meet either of my deadlines as I'd posted on my profile due to school (I have a grade dropping ... sad face ...), so I'm publishing both stories today. This is something I wrote a couple of months ago specifically for Christmas and I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

It was a cold Christmas morning. The inhabitants of the Central Park Zoo had organized a series of Christmas activities for the children and wasted no time in starting the holiday fun. A chorus of happy, screaming children filled the entire zoo and were all engaged in a snowball fight with the penguins, the lemurs, Marlene.

"Is that all you got?!" Skipper called from behind a trash can. Snowballs flew back and forth through the habitats, and it was males against females.

Skipper spotted Marlene across the aisle and scooped up a bundle of snow and balled it in his flippers while Marlene was distracted. After carefully aiming at his target, he launched the snow at Marlene, catching her in the back of the neck. With a laugh, she turned, scooped up a handful of snow and charged after Skipper, who took off in the other direction.

In the midst of the chase, Marlene tossed the snowball at Skipper with all of her might and it broke against his back, causing him to stumble slightly. His misfooting allowed for Marlene to catch up and she pounced on him, causing them both to fall to the ground laughing. After rolling for a few feet, Marlene cried out in pain.

Skipper ceased laughing and stopped them from rolling in the snow any further.

"What's wrong, Marlene?" he asked with a look of concern.

"I think I twisted my ankle …" Marlene said pushing herself into a sitting position and holding her right ankle.

"Let me see," Skipper said kneeling in front of her and examining her ankle. "Does this hurt?" he said gently pressing a nerve ending. Marlene winced.

"Yeah," she answered.

"Come on, I have a brace back at HQ," Skipper said getting to his feet and scooping Marlene into his flippers.

After the short walk to HQ, Skipper pulled a chair into the middle of the room with his foot and set Marlene down. He then retrieved the ankle brace from a cabinet and an ice pack from the freezer.

"How bad does it hurt?" he asked kneeling in front of her and gently pressing the ice to her ankle.

"Not as bad as it could, I guess," Marlene answered trying to hide the pain on her face. "Thanks, Skipper," she said forcing a smile.

Skipper smiled sympathetically back.

"That's what friends are for, right?"

Marlene's smile softened.

"Yeah."

For a moment, their eyes locked on each other and they were silent. Skipper didn't even realize that his grip was tightening on the ice pack due to the growing tension.

"Ouch!" Marlene said flinching in pain.

"Oh, sorry!" Skipper said pulling the pack away from her ankle. "I need to put the brace on, anyway. It's going to be just a little bit tight, but that's so it doesn't swell up," he explained. Marlene nodded and watched as Skipper gently slipped the brace over her foot and tightened it.

"You should probably stay off that foot for a few days," Skipper continued. "You need to give it some time to heal."

"What am I supposed to do in the meantime?" Marlene asked.

"I'm sure we can figure something out. Come on, let's go see how much fun we're missing," Skipper said with a smile. He offered a flipper to help Marlene up and she accepted it. Though, when she got to her feet, she accidentally put pressure on her sprained ankle and stumbled forward into Skipper, who firmly grabbed her shoulders to steady her.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Marlene replied. She tilted her head up as she winced in pain and found herself looking at a small green plant hanging from the ceiling.

"Skipper, is that …?" her voice trailed in realization and Skipper followed her gaze. Above their heads was a small mistletoe plant.

Skipper looked back to Marlene and laughed nervously.

"Heh, I told Rico to take that down."

"Why did Rico put it up in the first place?" Marlene asked nervously.

"He was trying to prank me this morning," Skipper answered with a slight laugh. Marlene looked down slightly.

"So," she said awkwardly.

"So," Skipper repeated at the same level of awkwardness.

"Are we going to … you know," Marlene asked without meeting his eye.

"What? Kiss?" Skipper asked nervously.

"No, no! I mean—you obviously don't want to. I wouldn't ask you to do something you didn't—"

Skipper gently lifted her chin with his flipper.

"I never exactly said that I didn't," he said with a nervous smile. "Unless, you don't want to—"

"Well, I mean, it's tradition, but if you don't want to, it's—"

She was interrupted when Skipper pressed his beak gently to her lips. Marlene—shocked as she was—closed her eyes and kissed him back. Skipper meant for the moment to last a few seconds, but found himself holding her closer as the kiss became more passionate. After a few minutes of this breathtaking moment, Skipper realized that he'd gone farther than intended and pulled away in shock.

"Marlene, I'm sorry, I—"

Marlene laughed.

"Skipper, I don't recall objecting," she said smiling, causing Skipper to blush beneath his feathers. "Besides, it's tradition, right?"

Skipper smiled.

"Yeah. Tradition."


End file.
